Kathy with Pamela Bruner at Transform 2011

Many of you know I was away at a conference last week. I headed to Fort Lauderdale in Florida to Transform 2011, an event hosted by one of my clients, Pamela Bruner who recently crossed the threshold to earning a 7 figure income (Very exciting for her!)

It was truly an eye opening conference for me as I came to some self realizations about my business, services and where and how I want to grow my business.

I met so many other entrepreneurs who were doing much of the same, based on my conversations and observations.

Kim, Rita, Moira & Me visiting Fort Lauderdale Beach

It was definitely a good investment of my time and money to attend especially for all the people I met and the marketing and sales lessons I received from Pamela’s presentations.

One of the last lessons I learned was on my trip home, which as per the usual for me, was filled with many an adventure via my mode of travel, Delta airlines again.

Now I know many of you readers will be thinking, “Oh No, not again! Did she have to take a taxi back from Maine to Nova Scotia this time too!” (see Dec 2010 blog post for that adventure!)

No worries, this trip was not near that level of adventure…

So on to the “Bright Side” of my trip.The parts to my journey were filled with many a change, but I had just spent the week learning about changing my business, and change is good.

1. The morning I was to leave, it started with a note on my phone that my flight was delayed… making me a tad nervous to get started on my journey! (ie. flashbacks to lots of delays and an $800 Taxi ride in December)
2. Delta kindly rerouted me, through New York instead of Detroit because of the delays going west (lots of extra booked passengers helped as they were happy to take one off that flight to make room for someone else) and they managed to move me from that original plan to another plane, that was going to get me home about the same time.  (Whoohoo)
3. The new flight meant a much later departure time and more airport waiting, but things move as planned, we get in the air with only  a small delay.  I am happy, comfy and fall asleep.
4. 50 minutes into the flight, I am woken by some noise and commotion. I can tell something is happening and soon the Captain announces that due to a medical emergency on board (!) we will be taking a small detour to Savannah, Georgia to get the passenger some help. (nothing too serious in the end as he was able to walk off with help from the paramedics)
5. With a little more delay we head to New York with most everyone thinking they are probably going to miss their connecting flight if the time between was close, as was  for me.  (we landed 45  minutes after my next flight was to leave, and got stuck in a lineup on the tarmac.
6. The Captain announces the lineup is because there had been a quick storm that passed over New York which as it happens made many connecting flights later and lots of us managed to catch them, like me!
7. I catch the connecting flight, we wait again in the lineups to take off and uneventfully, I make it home.  All told, I was about 4 hours later than planned, but home – which made my daughter a very happy camper! The more than two days to get home episode in December was still clear in her mind.

Now you might thinking – Bright Side, what Bright Side?

Well, here’s the thing about all the events that took place above, I gained some extra time while waiting in the airports and lineups. That time was very helpful in that I got out my notebook and refined all the ideas and notes from the conference and essentially created a new business plan, some new services and an entire new outlook on my business. All that time was a gift. I spent almost half a day writing and planning and putting the ideas on paper, refining them until I was clear on what my new vision was to be.

If all those delays had not occurred, that time would not have been available to do this. And if you are like me, once you get home from a conference there is a pile of things to take care of. Things that get in the way of finishing off your takeaways from the conferences, and making new plans that always come with new lessons.

The other parts to my Bright Side?

• I got to visit Georgia for the first time, even if only for an hour and from inside the plane!
• I met a lovely young couple from Turkey who were on their honeymoon
• Also met a businessman from Seattle  (who was Tom Hanks double, Hanks must have a brother with a different name!)
• I even managed to give Bob a good lesson on using social media for his business!

As entrepreneurs we are always tackling change and when you do,  looking for the bright side of these events can really give you a different outlook on life.
My advice?

Embrace the roadblocks you encounter as you never know what you will find behind them!

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